Quinlans’ Great 50-States-by-Motorcycle Adventure

We are on an adventure that it never occurred to me that I’d take. Not that unexpected adventures are new to me, they actually happen quite often, but this one is an epic adventure:

We are going to ride through all 50 states on our 2002 Harley Davidson Heritage Softtail.

Originally, the plan was to have our picture taken in front of the state sign in each state and have a beer nearby. These two actions would designate the state as “Officially Been Visited”. Unfortunately, when we visited our first official state, all the bars were closed, so we couldn't have the requisite beer.

It was probably a good thing not to include the “have a beer nearby”. Many of our states were visited very early in the morning, or we spent only enough time to get our official picture and hit the open road again.

So, our current rules are:

• The photo must be taken of an official state welcome sign.
• We must be within the state limits when the picture is taken.

Sounds pretty easy, right? It isn't. It didn't occur to me that you can’t stop on the interstate to take a picture. For each picture we have to cruise the back roads near the state line until we find a “Welcome to…” sign. 

Easy isn't always better, though. As you will read, some of our greatest stories come from riding the bike roads of America.

The Name: Yoga and the Art of Motorcycle Riding.

With all due respect to Mr. Persig, I've never read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". It looks like a good book. I’m all for being Zenful, I know nothing about motorcycle maintenance. I do, however know Yoga and Motorcycle Riding.

I've loved yoga for years and am even certified to teach yoga. Since I spend so many hours on the back of the bike, I've even developed my own set of asanas (poses) that can be done on the bike or during gas stops. But that really isn't the reason for the name.

A large part of yoga is learning to be mindful and live in the moment. To do this you must learn to calm your mind and live life fully in the moment you are experiencing right now. That’s what motorcycling does for me. The sights, sounds, smells, the feel of the rain or snow or sun on your face, the taste of salt or pine needles in the air – these all keep me present and fully aware of the gifts this part of the earth is giving you.

Sean and I bond on these trips. We rarely
talk while we are on the bike, but our connection is always there. This, my yogi friends, is my Samadhi.

The Advent of the Adventure

Back to how this all started. Early in 2011, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. We’d been married just over a year and our life was wonderful. There was no way I was going to let that change (at least permanently).

I had successful surgery, a couple rounds of chemotherapy and a few reconstruction surgeries.

Sean was there for every chemo session, every doctor’s visit, every trip to the hospital. As anyone who has gone through this knows, during these sessions, visits and trips, you end up with a lot of waiting time on your hands. Waiting for the chemicals to enter your system, waiting for your turn at the doctors’, waiting for surgery to start and waiting to go home.

At one point during a particularly long chemo session, Sean said “you know, we should…”. In all honesty, I don’t remember what he actually said, but I don’t know that’s where the plan to see the country via motorcycle was hatched.

Thus began the Quinlans’ Great 50-States-by-Motorcycle-Adventure (QG50SMA).

In the next couple months, I’ll try to share our adventures up this this point. You can even note the timeline as I go from long hair, to completely bald to short hair to “trying to grow it out” hair (which makes for really, really bad motorcycle hair, by the way). Sean always looks the same.